What Can Be Done about Election Year Insanity?

With every presidential election, the insanity that seems to permeate the air and is transmitted across the country in an almost memeingful manner gets more and more out of touch with reality and goes further and deeper into its own outer space. One candidate bashes the other about an issue while conveniently sweeping under the rug the issues he or she has had with that very issue in the past — and despite how quickly information is disseminated, e-mails seem to be used now more to spread lies than truths. Just this last weekend my father forwarded me an e-mail claiming that there would be a sales tax on all home sales as part of the new healthcare laws and asked me to verify it — and I managed to debunk it fairly quickly.

The insanity is quite evident in the pages of the newspaper that I read on a daily basis, Metro New York. In the letter writing section, just about every single letter is either an attack on one or the other presidential candidate for one reason or an attack on a previous letter writer as well as a rebuttal of everything said letter writer wrote. Those letters usually then get retaliatory letters from the first letter writer. I’m sure the biggest winner in all of that is the newspaper, which gets free entertainment from its readers.

The insanity spills out into forums and coffee shops, where people get into heated arguments about whose side is right. I once dared to point out the various marriages of Newt Gingrich and was yelled at about Hussein, which is the name people give the President of the United States when they are not interested in giving any honor the the office as long as it is being staffed by the current president.

There is a cure for this insanity and that is to skip the hype and go straight to the facts. Do not rely on advertisements or letter writing sections for your information, or even commercials. The facts can be found in voting records and legislature that has been written as well as the speeches of the candidates. Trust the reality in what the candidates have actually said and done, not the hype and insanity caused by letter writing sections and advertisements — regardless of whom they are supporting.